The efficacy of mobile marketing depends on the ability to tune noise out and deliver relevant content. Imparting relevance is difficult because context is inextricably linked to location. To be truly effective, mobile applications must be smart enough to discern that a user searching for an “apple” in a grocery store likely requires a fruit and not an iPhone.
Prior to the emergence of the first player tracking systems at the end of the millennium, gaming operators relied on casino hosts to cultivate and maintain personal relationships with customers. With the explosion of the megaresorts that followed the opening of the Mirage in 1989, it became exponentially more challenging to build relationships with customers.
Fundamentally, player tracking supported the ability to track play in a more effective and efficient manner, which afforded casino operators the opportunity to triage their clientele and devote more resources to their most profitable players. Although tracking systems have grown more complex, it is still difficult for resorts to engage their customers once they're inside the casino because these antiquated systems are two dimensional. Some of the more savvy operators have experimented with social media as a method of making these systems more interactive, but with limited success. Operators are still learning how to prioritize content, and consumers are often overloaded with content. Worse, pushing ads with little or no relevance results in users' deleting their mobile apps.
In a highly commoditized industry like gaming, content providers must strive even harder to ensure their content has context that differentiates themselves from their competitors. Despite all the technological advancements in the gaming industry over the last 120 years, the vast majority of growth has been driven by expansion of brick and mortar casinos: more devices, more casinos. Technologies that deliver meaningful contextual awareness will be the primary driver of gaming revenues for the foreseeable future.